Finished: The End of Bad Roads. The Last Incarnation of Vautrin (de Balzac) Well, RIP to the unlikeable Lucien de Rubempre, the main character in de Balzac's Lost Illusions, who continued his story in The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans, and ended it tragically in this last part of the tale. I can't say that I mind, since I found Lucien to be very selfish, heartless and cowardly. At the end of Splendors both Lucien and Carlos Herrera aka Vautrin aka Jacques Collin, his mentor, were arrested for the death of Lucien's one true love, Esther, and for stealing her missing money. Not too far into this book Jacques has already talked both of their ways out of the prison charges by pointing the authorities in the direction of a suicide note that Esther left AND in the direction of Esther's servants who seemingly made off with her money. At the very time that the Attorney General has authorized the release of Lucien, he is in his cell writing a last letter and committing suicide by hanging himself. I can't say that I cried any tears, but it was rather tragic. Of course, the wily Jacques Collin had forged Esther's suicide note himself, and it was HIS people who had made off with the money. By the end of this book, he has all the authorities eating out of the palm of his hand and has talked his way into actually becoming the head of the police instead of a career criminal. As usual, I love de Balzac's writing and enjoyed the snippets of a few characters from his other books who made small appearances in this one.